Hybrid Theory
by The Sh33p
Summary: A tournament in the aftermath of the Cell Games turns into a fight for survival... Moderate AU, songfic. R for cursing and violence.
1. Part 1 - Runaway

Hybrid TheoryDisclaimer: Don`t own it. Bye bye.  
  
  
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Hybrid Theory

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_Runaway_   
  
  
  
The seat was comfortable. Probably the only comfortable thing about this little flight to her senses, really. "I`ll win easily, `sumin` the poor sap even gets by any o` my students," Hercule laughed to the woman sitting gleefully on his lap like the bimbo that she was. _"Doesn`t he know when he`s being used?"_ Videl asked herself, glancing over at her father and his newest freeloading slut of a girlfriend. Hercule laughed some more and chugged down some champaign. _"It`s like everything`s gone right to his head since the Cell Games,"_ she thought again, moving her glance to the window. _"But something just isn`t right. My father may be strong, but those guys just seemed unbeatable. Especially the two that fought Cell right after him,"_ she thought again. _"That guy who fought first looked as strong as Cell, but the kid..."_ She imagined the boy`s face again. Standing there with a purpose, hair so golden that it put the sun to shame easily, an outfit worn by the green skinned fighter who looked about ready to go ballistic when the boy walked down to face Cell alone. _"He`s not telling the truth. That kid wasn`t even really fighting back and he laid Cell out at least once."_   
  
"Who is he?" She muttered aloud, just low enough that her father didn`t hear her from his laughter.   
  
  
"Almost there," ChiChi said with a smile. Gohan beamed, sitting there in a gi-styled outfit looking quite similar to his father`s but with a different pair of kanjis. The one over his heart simply read: "Trained by Son Goku," while the one over his back read: "Trained by Ma." His hair stuck out wildly but in a strangely ordered manner, and his eyes locked forward, a smile that seemed uncharacteristic of him just a few months before planted on his face. "There`re a lot of fighters coming here today," Bulma noted, taking the air car a bit higher up. "Might be a hassle to find a parking place," she said with a slight frown. Mirai Trunks, holding his baby self, didn`t really seem to mind. "Me and Gohan can just fly down there and you two can find a parking place if we have to hurry to sign up," he said. Bulma gave a nod. "You may have to, given how many aircars there are out here," she said. ChiChi frowned a bit. "I still don`t see why you want to do this, Gohan."   
  
"Because, the prize money is a hundred million Zenni, and I can keep my skills up like Dad did," Gohan responded with a shrug. ChiChi`s face seemed to go moonstruck. "We certainly could use the money," she mumbled. _"Mainly since I`m pregnant,"_ she added in thought, not wanting Gohan to know just yet. "Unless Trunks beats him," Bulma reminded with a smirk. Mirai Trunks looked over at his past self`s mother with a raised eyebrow, then shook his head before leaning over to Gohan. "If I do win, somehow, you can take the money. My mom certainly won`t miss it since she`s richer than God," he whispered with an uncharacteristic sarcasm. Gohan nodded and whispered back. "Thanks. I`ll try and not beat you too badly," he said with a smirk before looking back out the window. "Sure you will," Trunks chided, rocking his baby self with a smirk.   
  
  
"Come on, wiggle a bit!" Hercule shouted, the blonde in his lap complying with a giggle so femininely squeeky that it made Videl`s ears hurt. "Ugh," she grumbled, reaching forward and tossing on a pair of headphones. Without much thought, she smacked the play button, hearing an all too familiar song pick up on the CD player. _  
  
Graffiti decorations, underneath a sky of dust.  
A constant wave of tension, on top of broken trust. _  
  
She glanced over at her father. _"Prick. Mom would rip into him if she knew what he`s turned into without her around,"_ she thought. Hercule Satan had indeed become something far less than he was when her mother was around. Videl missed her mother bitterly, she missed the way her mother would tell her about her life in an old temple before she`d met Hercule. She`d tell Videl what Hercule was like when he was younger, something that often made Videl blink repeatedly to think how a once humbled young man had turned into the dirty, middle aged bastard that he was now. Her mother, a woman named Rei, was the only thing that ever kept Hercule`s ego in line. Without her?   
  
_ The lessons that you taught me, I learned were never true.  
Now I find myself in question.   
  
_ She frowned, looking at him. Where had that humble, good hearted man gone when her mother died? Did Hercule`s spirit die with her and go with her to heaven, leaving Videl with this asshole? She didn`t know anymore than she cared. _"No. He didn`t beat Cell at all. I`m convinced of it."   
  
They point the finger at me again.  
Guilty by association.  
You point the finger at me again.  
  
  
_ Hercule felt an ice cold glare from his daughter, but didn`t look to face her. Instead, he stayed, focused on his newest girlfriend. Pyza was the woman`s name, redheaded and well proportioned, she was mindless. Hercule liked that. No questions.   
  
_ Paper bags and angry voices, under a sky of dust.  
Another wave of tension, has more than filled me up.  
All my talk of taking action, these words were never true...  
  
  
_ Videl on the other hand...   
  
  
"There`s the island," ChiChi announced, reaching back and smacking Gohan on the side of the head. He woke up slowly, wiping off the drool from the back of his mouth and staring emptily ahead at ChiChi. "Wha...?" He asked groggily. "The tournament island," she reminded him. Instantly, Gohan`s black eyes went wide and he remembered, shooting awake entirely and getting a bit anxious. "We there already?" Mirai Trunks smirked and looked back at Bulma, who was hiding her own smirk at Gohan`s behavior. Just like Goku.   
  
"Almost. And it does look like you two`ll have to fly down without us, we`ll probably be looking for a parking place for a little while," ChiChi said diminutively, taking baby Trunks from his adult self and cradling the child, who actually didn`t move an inch. "Race?" Gohan asked, unbuckling his safety harness and stepping to the back of the airbus. "Nah. Don`t wanna knock anyone out of the sky, do you?" Trunks asked back. _"Dang."_ "Good point." That said, the rear hatch opened up and two demi-saiyans jumped out, freefalling for several seconds before taking control of their momentum and heading for the gigantic arena on Battle Island #1, both touching down, surprisingly unnoticed for the most part, and beginning to head for the main arena.   
  
Once the two had jumped out, Bulma flicked a switch and closed the hatch. After that, she spent a few seconds circling the island before spotting an unused spot out near the edge of things, looking over to ChiChi now with a curious glint in her eyes. "You`re hiding something, aren`t you?" She asked bluntly, looking forward again and setting a course to touch down right in the spot she`d wanted. In the process, she hadn`t exactly noticed the fact that reporters were starting to gather up nearby. ChiChi nodded. "I`ll tell you once we land," she said, not putting up a fight while she cradled Trunks in her lap. Oddly enough, the baby didn`t move or stir in the least. He apparently had a liking for his godmother.   
  
With a soft thunk and a sound of rushing air, the airbus touched down, and Bulma looked expectantly at ChiChi after undoing her harness. "Well?" ChiChi let out a soft smile at the picture of everyone gathered at a swimming resort, taken several years earlier, then looked over at Bulma and closed her eyes. "Gohan`s going to be a big brother soon." Bulma blinked in silence for several seconds before the information fully hit her. "ChiChi," she began. "Did Goku know?" ChiChi shook her head regretfully. "He was concieved just before the Cell Games."   
  
Bulma went wide eyed again and spoke once more, voice a bit distant. "Does Gohan know?" ChiChi shook her head. "I want him to know, but not until after this tournament. I want him to have some fun, Bulma. He shouldn`t be fighting because he feels he has to, not after the Cell Games," she said with an affirming nod. Bulma replied with a nod as well, then opened the door. "Want me to carry Trunks?" ChiChi smiled warmly at the soon-to-be toddler. "He`s your son, Bulma. I wouldn`t mind the practice though," she said while glancing at Bulma, who gave a quiet smile and nodded. "Need any help getting out then?"   
  
"No, I`ve got it."   
  
_ I wanna run away, never say good-bye.  
I wanna know the truth.  
Instead of wondering why.  
I wanna know the answers...  
**No more lies.**   
  
_ Videl gave her father another glare as the hoverjet touched down softly with a silent thunk and a jolt, quickly undoing her harness and getting up. "I`ll go ahead and find a seat at the arena," she said automatically. Hercule either didn`t care or didn`t hear her, instead giving Pyza a kiss on the throat and then getting up. "You stay here," he said with an arrogant grin. "I`ll be back in a few hours, with a hundred million Zenni for us to bathe in!" He said, laughing stupidly before following Videl out.   
  
_ I wanna shut the door, and open up my mind.  
  
_ Thankfully, there were no reporters around, but there were a pair of women and a baby nearby, within range for Hercule to zero in on the lavender haired woman`s chest. "You go on without me, Videl. I`ll be there soon," he said, eyes expanding to the size of dinner plates. Videl looked back over her shoulder, brushing a long black ponytail aside to glance at her father, then to the target of his stare. _"Fucking **bastard**"   
  
Gonna run away...   
  
_ That was it. The last straw. With a hateful glare at him, she broke into a sprint, running towards the arena while Hercule started to walk towards the two women. Videl`s eyes stung and watered while she ran, yellow tinted, clip on boots smashing into the concrete of the parking lot as fast as they could could.   
  
"Hello, ma`am," Hercule said in his best voice. Bulma`s face took on a decidedly deadpan expression as she walked by, glancing over at a frowning ChiChi, who looked ready to rip Hercule`s afro-haircut off of his scalp and feed it to him. "C`mon, don`t you know I`m the guy that beat Cell? Show some respect for the champ!" He demanded. ChiChi`s face turned into a twitch and she looked at Bulma, who gave a brisk nod, taking Trunks from her surrogate little sister-in-law and stepping back. "Excuse me, Mr. Satan," ChiChi said giving Hercule a few taps on the shoulder. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and spoke up in reply. "I don`t go for chicks like you," he said dumbly.   
  
_ "Oh, he just asked for it,"_ Bulma thought with a cheshire grin as ChiChi gained that look on her face that even Goku was scared of. With a thunderous crash, Hercule smacked into the back of his plain, a fist sized redmark the shape of ChiChi`s hand painted onto his face. After that, he slowly peeled off and fell back down, muttering something about PMS and tricks.   
  
"That was for Gohan. Now let`s go," she said authoritively, walking off towards the arena with Bulma and Trunks in tow.   
  
  
"Alright. The fighting starts in one hour, you`ll have Block Three, and you`ll have Block Eight. Any questions?"   
  
  
Gohan raised his hand. "Who`s fighting Mr. Satan?" He asked curiously. "Whoever wins the main tournament and then passes through the test course and the last match will fight Mr. Satan," the geeky attendant said. Gohan and Trunks gave each other glances before Trunks spoke up. "Guess this is going to be interesting, huh?" He asked. Gohan just smiled a bit and walked away. "I`m gonna go get something to eat while we wait. You?" Gohan asked over his shoulder. "No thanks. I`ll just wait here and see if the others got in and found seats yet," Trunks answered with a shrug before walking off in the opposite direction.   
  
  
Videl burst past the Private Audience-Fighter Registry entrance doors, none of the gaurds even noticing her for the most part. _"How could he?"_ She asked herself repeatedly, ducking down a hallway and continuing her sprint. Her face, buried in her hands, was wet with two trails of tears, and those black ponytails of her`s trailed behind her in her wake. She was crying. Again. She hated crying. Her father though, he just didn`t seem to understand his own daughter. He noticed her when she was convenient, then ignored her somehow when she wasn`t. She was his only plaything that he wouldn`t get rid of, the champ`s daughter. That`s the only reason she trained. It was her only release in life, even if it was forced on her. The bastard wouldn`t even train her himself, she 'wasn`t good enough' yet in his eyes. Nevermind the fact she could already lay out half of his best students, and had actually come close to crippling some of the other half. She didn`t know it but she was already stronger than Hercule was, or ever would be.   
  
Too bad no one else knew either. For all her strength, Videl was just daddy`s little sugerpea. His show item, the proof he had that he was a good family man. She was probably the only reason that most people even believed Hercule had won the day against Cell. He`d told the reporters that he`d go out there, fight and win for his daughter, and they`d bought every single word like the chumps they were. Made him look like more of a hero to them, but she knew he wasn`t the one who beat that monster. He was a monster in his own right. No one else knew it though.   
  
So caught up in her tears and her damnation of her father was she, that Videl didn`t look ahead at all. She just looked at the floor and tried to conceal her tearstreaked face from everyone that could or would show up. Too bad...   
  
  
Gohan didn`t budge off of his course when the black haired girl slammed into him. She was dressed in a pair of what looked like black spandex shortshorts, he didn`t know if they were spandex or not, and a flowing, oversized white t-shirt, a pair of purple socks faintly visible above the rims of clip on boots and a had her hair in a pair of flowing ponytails. "Sorry," he stammered, looking a bit mortified. He reached down, offering his hand, but instead, had it slapped away. That`s when he noticed she was wearing a pair slightly wet, fingerless gloves. His hand wasn`t bruised, but he felt a bit of moisture left over from where the palm of her glove had hit it.   
  
He didn`t bother trying to offer a hand again, instead watching her sit there on the floor, sniffling and making choking sounds once in a while. "Are you alright?" He asked. "No," she choked out, placing her hands to her face and continuing to cry. Gohan, being the kindhearted adolescent that he was, crouched down and came to eye level with the girl, head tilted to the side a bit with a concerned expression gracing his features. "What`s wrong then?" He asked. Videl just growled a bit and balled her fists up, looking over at Gohan with her face framed by her hairstyle. She had a scowl on her angry enough to put ChiChi to shame, but it was tinged with a sadness he recognized and somewhat identified with. "You can tell me if you want. I won`t say a thing to anyone," he offered, gazing at her. _"He looks familiar,"_ Videl thought, glaring at this seemingly innocent boy before her. "Who are you?" She asked. "I`m Gohan. You?"   
  
"Videl." Gohan nodded. "Too bad we couldn`t meet under better circumstances. You wanna talk about whatever`s bothering you or anything?" He asked, standing up straight and again extending a hand to help the girl up. She again didn`t accept it, but she didn`t slap it away this time either. Instead, Videl got to her feet on her own, still wearing a scowl but having her features lightened a bit. At least this kid seemed willing to listen without judging. He didn`t even seem to notice who she was, and if he did, he obviously could care less. There was also something innately trustworthy about him. "Sure," she managed to sputter out. "How about somewhere other than a hallway though?" She asked, watching as her father finally staggered in, clutching his face and grumbling to himself.   
  
_"Serves him right,"_ both of them thought in unison, watching Hercule walk by without noticing them. "Wonder what happened to him," Gohan mumbled, looking over at Videl again with a shrug. "Maybe he finally got stood up," she mumbled out, catching his comment about some crazy bitch with black hair and a bad outfit. Gohan`s face lightened a bit as he caught it too. "Why the smile?" She asked, suddenly a bit annoyed that he wasn`t paying attention. "I think he met Bulma and my mom. Poor guy," he muttered the last part before speaking again quickly. "Wanna go somewhere to talk about it? Over food maybe? I`m kinda starved," he admitted, his stomach confirming it with a low rumble. "Sure."   
  
  
Bulma sat down with a grin, looking out as fighters started pouring into the rings. Fifteen minutes, it had taken them, to find seats and even a bit longer to get drinks and food for the time they`d spend waiting. People crowded the stands, but there were still a few empty seats, maybe thirty in all. "Is that Krillin?" Bulma asked with a tilt of the head. ChiChi, now holding baby Trunks, looked towards the second ring curiously and spotted a bald midget in a fighting uniform similar to Goku`s. "Poor guy, probably thought he`d be coming here and getting to win easily," ChiChi commented while rocking baby Trunks gently. The present embodiment of the lavender haired youth entering ring eight was still quite asleep, and quite content at the moment. "Is that Tien? And Yamcha?" Bulma asked in sudden surprise, spotting her ex-boyfriend, and current best male friend out in the crowd of fighters in block three, and the three eyed monk-like ex-assassin entering block seven. "Wow, looks like most of the gang is here. Only ones missing from the ring that I know of are Gohan and Piccolo," Bulma answered herself.   
  
ChiChi privately groaned at the mention of her soon-to-be oldest son`s best friend. Even if she`d become able to stomach Piccolo, she still found him to be far too strange for her to like as more than a very distant acquaintance. "Nope. There`s Piccolo right there, ring two," Bulma pointed before taking a sip of her drink.   
  
Sure enough, there stood the white cloaked, turban wearing ex-Demon King of the Earth, standing still as a statue at the edge of the ring, just out of sight in actuality but still apparent. "Guess this`ll be worth coming to see, huh?" Bulma asked. "Oh... Yeah... Really," ChiChi blindly replied, shifting her gaze over to the entrance, which Gohan had yet to come through. "Say, why didn`t Vegeta come to fight? He would probably love facing off with Gohan or Trunks right now," ChiChi asked, trying to change the subject. Bulma shrugged. "He`s just been moping around lately," she said. "Must be because of Goku`s death," ChiChi remarked before turning back to the arena and settling in for what was going to be a long 45 minutes.   
  
  
Gohan sat on the railing, looking on as fighter after fighter poured into the stages, spotting most of those he knew and a good many he didn`t. But he wasn`t really paying much attention to it. Videl sat on the ground beside and below him, leaned forward on a support for the railing, her arms almost wrapped around it. "He`s so mean now," she mumbled, looking to the box where her father would be entering in a few minutes. "It`s like all of his fame`s gone to his head." Gohan gave a nod, paying a good deal of attention. Almost an hour, he and Videl had spent doing nothing but talking to each other. She`d almost broken down twice, the first time when they started talking as they ate, the second time when they`d taken to watching everyone fill into the rings.   
  
"Who`s your dad anyway?" Gohan finally asked curiously. Videl spoke his name bitterly, but she managed to get it out anyway. "Hercule Satan. The world champion, the Man who beat Cell," she said, emphasizing her disbelief in his claim. Gohan`s jaw would`ve dropped, but he kept it from doing so, mainly for her sake. "I... See. Well," he said, reaching into his overshirt. He then looked out to spot the seat beside his mother and Bulma empty, then looked down at Videl and fumbling around for a second. She looked up at him curiously, an eyebrow raised. Gohan took his hand out and reached down, handing Videl the ticket he`d bought in case he lost and still wanted to see the outcome. "I gotta go. My mom and Bulma are out there," he made a very direct pointing motion to a strangely familiar pair of women. "You can go sit by them and we can probably talk again after the tournament," he stated with a Son Smile. "If not, it was nice to meet you. Bye, Videl!"   
  
At his last words, he was already darting off the safety rail running down the steps towards the ring, clearing the space onto an elevated platform with ease. _"Too familiar,"_ she thought. _"He`s nice, and kind, but he`s hiding something,"_ she thought, watching him land as the first bell rang out, heralding the beginning of the tournament. "I`ll find you out yet, Gohan" she mumbled with a sad-but-happy smirk, walking off towards the exit to go find the seat he`d pointed her to. Maybe she`d get to know him better yet...   
  
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End Part One

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	2. Part 2 - Points of Authory

Hybrid TheoryDisclaimer: Don`t own it. Never will. Toodles.   
  
  
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Hybrid Theory

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_Points of Authority_   
  
  
Trunks smirked as he caught the first fighter, throwing the man over his shoulder and then grabbing the next one, flinging him out of the ring as well, almost getting him into the first row of the audience. The ring was elevated high above a small lake that had been made in the arena, and the rules were simple. No killing, you get knocked out or thrown from the ring and you`re out. Trunks liked it like this. No holds barred fighting was usually too vicious, and the Cell Games were a bit too sadistic in their rules for him to truly enjoy anyway. Now? This was more like it.   
  
With a smirk, he caught another fighter, kicking the man in the jaw and sending him flying through the air to smack off the side of another ring, where he rolled down into the water. The battle royales were fierce and quick, men and women flying out in every direction, several dominant forces apparent through it all.   
  
Krillin grinned, throwing another of the oversized fighters off of his platform and turning around, backhanding the umpteenth man in the ring and sending him flying away, flashing a cheesey victory sign as he did so. "This is too easy," Krillin stated happily, smacking another man down and then giving another a kick into the stomach so hard that it sent the man flying out of the ring and into the lake below. Fighter after fighter fell rapidly, and a shocked Yamcha was among those who went out in the early going, staring up from his spot in the water as a sumo wrestler dusted his hands off by slapping them together, turning around and going back to the action in a frenzied manner.   
  
In another ring, a crowd of fighters suddenly went flying over the ledge, Gohan smiling ear to ear while waving up at ChiChi before thinking to himself. _"Dad used to practice in these tournaments all the time, so will I,"_ he thought to himself, jumping backwards and smacking his foot into the side of the last fighter`s face, having worked his way through the other competitors with more speed than one would think.   
  
"Son Gohan, qualified!"   
  
_ Forfeit the game, before somebody else takes you out of the frame  
Puts your name to shame, cover up your face, you can`t run the race  
The pace is too fast, you just won`t last...  
  
_ Krillin looked to his side in shock to see Gohan sitting down and watching the other fighters with some enthusiasm. "Udo, qualified!" Krillin facefaulted, turning around to see Piccolo standing there, stoic as ever. "I thought I could handle Tien or Yamcha if they showed up," he muttered. "But Piccolo and Gohan?"   
  
"Trunks Briefs, qualified!"   
_  
You love the way, I look at you...   
_  
Piccolo opened his eyes, glancing at that fearful look of Krillin`s with an alien smirk.   
_  
While taking pleasure in the awful things you put me through  
You take away, if I give in_

  
Krillin winced, the impact of Trunks` name finally hitting him like a ton of bricks. "Not him too," Krillin grumbled. "I`m screwed," he said again as Piccolo started to walk forward, calm and collected as ever.   
_ You love the things, I say I`ll do  
The way I`ll hurt myself again, just to get back at you  
My life, my pride is broken.  
  
_ Vegeta scowled, laying there on the couch and staring at the television. "Pathetic," he muttered, watching it with little interest as it showed Tien being qualified. He reached down and turned the television off without giving it another thought, ignoring the shine of Trunks` sword nearby in a window.   
  
  
Tien looked up at the box that Hercule was seated in, giving him a thumbs up and a devilish smirk before sitting himself down and watching the action in the other rings.   
  
_ You like to think you`re never wrong  
You like to act like you`re someone_

  
Krillin gulped and then drew back, rushing at Piccolo valiantly before throwing a lunging punch at the Namek`s face. Piccolo sidestepped, and Krillin went flying over the ring, only to be stopped in mid-flight by a strong hand clasped tightly around his ankle. "I came here today because I thought I`d get a fight from a man with spirit," he stated, throwing Krillin back into the ring and walking to the edge of the ring. "I was obviously wrong."   
  
_ You want someone to hurt like you  
You want to share what you`ve been through  
** You live what you learn**  
  
_ Videl hesitantly continued her walk, passing through the bleachers with little real attention before looking up at the woman with lavender hair and speaking. "Are you ChiChi?" She asked. Bulma looked over and shook her head. "No, I`m Bulma. That`s ChiChi," she answered, motioning towards the middle-aged looking woman who looked as timid and kind as could be. "Hi," Videl said. "Would it be too much if I asked to sit here?" She asked. ChiChi raised an eyebrow. "I don`t know why you`d ask, but go ahead." She shrugged.   
  
Videl quietly made her way around Bulma and ChiChi before sitting down and explaining. "Gohan gave me his ticket and said I could watch the tournament with you. If you don`t want me, I`ll leave," she said. ChiChi quirked an eyebrow and Bulma could swear she saw something strange happen. ChiChi`s face lit up a bit. "I don`t mind at all, miss. What`s your name?" ChiChi asked, continuing to rock Trunks around, who was being remarkably well behaved at the moment. "Videl Satan." A loud gulp could be heard from ChiChi and Bulma both. "Gohan said he thought you were the ones that beat up my dad earlier. Thanks," Videl said with a low smirk. ChiChi looked over at Bulma, who bore an equally shocked expression.   
  
_ "Talk about revenge,"_ ChiChi thought, reasoning instantly in the warped workings of her mind that Gohan had made friends with Videl just to try and get back at Hercule. "Where is Gohan anyway?" Videl asked. Bulma answered matter of factly, motioning towards the form in ring three with the spikey, forward-looking hairdo. "Right there." Videl blinked. "He cleared out an entire ring alone?" ChiChi nodded with pride. "Whoa," Videl muttered. _"He has to be hiding something. How can a kid my age be that strong? Unless... The hair. He looks like that kid, but his eyes aren`t green and his hair`s black. I don`t get it,"_ Videl thought, trying to figure it out.   
  
  
Piccolo had left the arena by now, taking flight and leaving behind a vapor trail that left some of the audience stunned. Krillin was sitting there in shocked dismay while the other Z fighters present had sat down of their own choice, watching him to see what he`d do next, only to find a strange grin on his face as he was called out and qualified. "Idu, Dosukoi and Kanfoon," the announcer called out in rapid succession. "Yep. I`m screwed," Krillin muttered, looking around as the rings suddenly began to close in and form up into one gigantic battleground. "The semi-finalist matches are..." The announcer paused, then reading off names in chronological order.   
  
"Son Gohan versus Udo, Tien versus Trunks, Krillin versus Idu and Dosukoi versus Kanfoon!"   
  
The crowd`s cheering didn`t stop for a second as everyone but Udo and Gohan lined up on the edge of the ring, watching the towering Udo approach his youthful foe with a cocky grin that made Gohan roll his eyes. "Just because you`re a kid, doesn`t mean I`m gonna hold out on you!" Gohan shrugged. "I understand," he said. "What?! Are you making fun of me?!" Udo demanded, reaching down to grab Gohan. Unfortunately for him, Gohan was already standing behind and above him, a leg crashing across Udo`s back and sending the giant of a man flying out of the ring and and right into the audience.   
  
  
"No... Way..." Videl muttered, those baby blue eyes of her`s expanded to the size of dinner plates. "`Atta boy, Gohan!" ChiChi cheered joyously. Bulma smirked, looking at the shocked expression on Videl`s face. "Strong for a kid, isn`t he?" She asked slyly. "My dad`s as strong as they get and he can`t do anything close to that," Videl muttered, unhearing of the chuckle from Bulma. _"Poor girl. Gohan`s definately going to have a time explaining everything to her if they become friends for very long,"_ Bulma thought sympathetically.   
  
"Go Gohan! Go Gohan!" ChiChi yelled right down to the ring as her son stepped over, out of the way, and Trunks and Tien walked to the middle of the ring. "This should be interesting," Trunks said. Tien shook his head. "Just because I`m human doesn`t mean you can hold out on me. Got that?" Tien asked. Trunks gave a quiet nod and things started off at a feverish pace, the two warriors exchanging frenzied blows that were all caught or dodged.   
  
Tien dodged back and sent off a roundhouse kick, which Trunks jumped over, passing over Tien`s head and spinning so as to kick him right in the face, which lifted Tien off of the ground and into the air, where the triclops stayed, trying to shake out his brain. Tien didn`t get the time he needed though, and Trunks soon sent off several rapid strikes into his friend`s chest, ending with a stiff right hook that threw Tien towards the lake below.   
  
  
"It`s... Them," Hercule stammered. "The guys from the Cell Games," he said again under his breath. Thoughts immediately went from victory to thinking up a way to get the hell out of dodge, and Hercule was an excellent thinker when it came to that...   
  
  
"Hey, waitaminute... Aren`t they two of the guys from the Cell Games?" Videl asked. ChiChi smiled a bit. "A good few of the semi-finalists are, actually. Tien, Trunks, Krillin, that green skinned guy you probably saw earlier..." Videl shot ChiChi a look. "Gohan?" ChiChi slid her eyes shut and nodded a few times before opening them and looking at her son, who was practically the spitting image of a younger Goku. "I knew I saw him from somewhere," Videl mumbled. ChiChi was about to go into a tirade, but an elbow from Bulma followed by a look that spoke volumes silenced her before she could begin.   
  
_ "He was that kid that fought against Cell... But if he and those other weird guys are here, that means one of them beat Cell,"_ Videl thought, glancing around to spot one of the other men touching down over at the elevated part of the arena that served as a walkway around the top. "But two of them are missing," she observed, noting that neither of the blonde men who looked past their twenties were anywhere in the arena. _"Or if they are here, they`ve found some trick that turns their hair gold,"_ she thought again, remembering that Gohan had somehow changed his own hair but it didn`t seem to be dyed in any way.   
  
  
Tien stopped before he could impact the lake, flying back up and smacking Trunks solidly with his elbow, which sent the youth from the future flying away, only to catch himself and come flying back, a battle ready expression glazed over his face. _"Too fast,"_ Tien thought, barely dodging the sweeping kick from Trunks and countering with a pair of ki blasts at point blank. Trunks blocked the first with his right forearm, but the second caught him square in the chest, sending his sleeveless denim jacket billowing back and throwing him into a backflip, trailing smoke the entire way.   
  
Trunks flew right back in yet again, smacking Tien in the side of the face with his boot and leaving the triclops reeling briefly before punching Trunks in the chin, which sent both fighters far apart. _"He`s still holding back,"_ Tien thought, rubbing his bruised chin with a hardened look before his eyes shot wide. "Not anymore," Trunks answered his thought as if he`d known what his opponent was thinking. A wave of energy rippled off of the young man, followed by his body seeming to enlarge, bit by bit, into a stage of heightened power, hair spiking out around him and turning a brilliant shade of gold, his eyes becoming entirely teal in nature.   
  
  
"That one just ended," Krillin muttered over to Gohan while scratching his wrist a bit. "Looks that way," Gohan shrugged back. Both winced in unison when Tien hit the water, Trunks automatically fading out of Super Saiya-jin and landing on the ground next to the sea. "Guess you were right," Gohan said with a frown. Krillin gave a sage nod and looked over his side at his opponent, Idu, who stood a good few feet taller than he himself did. "This shouldn`t take long," Krillin assured Gohan, who gave a wave and hopped off the island, managing to land on the ground that beached the artificial sea around them. "This is fun," Gohan stated joyously with his hands wrapped behind his head.   
  
Mirai Trunks gave a nod, waving a good-bye to Tien and then leaning against the wall that was behind him. "Look`s like this`ll be a quickie," Trunks mumbled, watching as Idu screamed, flew off of the top of the ring and smacked into a wall with cratering force. "Was a quickie, anyway," Gohan replied, watching as Krillin landed a few feet away, a nervous expression written on his face.   
  
  
"How did those three get so strong, anyway?" Videl asked herself aloud. ChiChi smirked a bit and leaned back in her seat, finally handing baby Trunks over to Bulma and then looking at Videl. "I guess Gohan can explain that to you," she said with a slight shrug. _"At least now I know one of those guys was definately in the Cell Games. And that was no trick,"_ she thought, watching the three who had pretty much cleared through the tournament ranks without even trying. _"One of those guys beat Cell,"_ she thought, confident in her guess.   
  
"Uhm... Hey, Bulma. Did they all fight in the Cell Games?" ChiChi facefaulted. "Yes," Bulma answered, watching ChiChi warily. "Then... Two of them are missing. The short guy with gold hair and the one dressed like Gohan," she began. "What happened to them, anyway?" ChiChi was about to speak up but was instead silenced abruptly. Bulma leaned over ChiChi`s lap and spoke to Videl quietly. "Gohan will explain it to you, ChiChi`s still pretty hurt about what happened there, alright?" Videl nodded as the announcer introduced four ridiculously costumed men and said they were aliens from across the core galaxies, here to represent themselves against the competitors, to see if they would be worthy of combat with the "universally known champion, Mr. Satan."   
  
She felt her stomach do a flop at those words. "Morons," she muttered under her breath, recognizing four of her father`s students. ChiChi calmed down instantly, looking on at Videl dangerously with that starstruck look in her eyes. Bulma could almost hear the younger woman`s thoughts.   
  
_ "She`ll make the perfect wife for Gohan."   
  
"He`s not even twelve and she`s thinking of ways to set him up,"_ Bulma thought, almost disgusted but not really surprised in the least.   
  
"Dosukoi, qualified!"   
  
_End Part Two_


	3. Part 3 - Papercut

Hybrid TheoryDisclaimer: Don`t own it. Meh!  
  
  


* * *

**Hybrid Theory**  
_Papercut_

  
  
  
  
Battle Island #2 was waiting as the four finalists, Gohan, Trunks, Krillin and Dosukoi, gathered together in the waiting area. Dosukoi bore a look of ginger relaxation, Trunks and Krillin both remaining intense and focused, and Gohan smiling it was his birthday. "Excited?" Dosukoi asked, sitting his immense bulk down and leaning forward, rested indian style on the ground. "Definately," Gohan answered after sipping the canned soda he`d gotten during the brief intermission between walking to the transport area and the wait that came soon afterward. "Well, maybe I`ll see you in the last match," Dosukoi chuckled. Gohan smiled dimly, knowing that despite his good heart and seemingly friendly nature, Dosukoi wasn`t going to come close to making it past anyone he fought if he got by Satan`s students. "Maybe," he replied cheerily, not wanting to crush the big man`s ego.   
  
"Hopefully at least one of us will take Mr. Satan down," Dosukoi muttered. "I still believe he`s lying about saving us all from Cell," he added, bringing a slight smile to the faces of all three of the Z fighters present. _"At least there are a few people other than Roshi, that Lyme girl and everyone else in and around Mount Paozu who aren`t dumb,"_ Krillin thought, fondly remembering how his old friend had given a fairwell before vanishing out one last time. _"Still miss ya Goku,"_ he thought, glancing over at Gohan, who was quite engrossed with conversing with Dosukoi.   
  
"I wonder what ChiChi and Bulma are doing," Krillin thought aloud. "Probably arguing over who`ll win this thing," Trunks replied matter of factly. Gohan paused in his conversation with Dosukoi finishing his drink and tossing the can over his shoulder. "Probably getting to know Videl," he answered their questions and shrugged. "Videl?" Krillin asked. "Yeah, a friend I made. She`s actually Hercule`s daughter," he answered. Trunks smirked in a fairly Vegeta-like sort of way, and Krillin let out an old smile. "Gohan`s got a girlfriend," he sang, causing the boy to become wide eyed and blush to the roots of his hair, which made both Trunks and Dosukoi laugh, one a quiet sort of laugh, the other a rumbling kind that could be felt as much as it could be heard.   
  
_ "Almost time,"_ Gohan thought, looking up at the clock while the seconds ticked away. They`d already been briefed as to what they`d have to do, and he was quite antsy as to when he`d get to go. Trunks, the calmest, most reserved of the four, was idly watching the miniature version of his former mentor with a smirk. Gohan was still blushing while Krillin continued picking on him relentlessly. "That is _some_ revenge y`got there Gohan," he said aloud. Dosukoi didn`t ask what that revenge was for, thankfully, instead getting to his feet while still laughing. "I believe it`s time we go," he said as the countdown his twenty seconds.   
  
  
"And there they are. I don`t know about you fans, but I`m putting my money on Trunks Briefs," the announcer said, the camera panning in on Mirai Trunks as he did so, which made Bulma, and a large contingent of the female audience, cheer loudly. "But you just can`t count out growing prodigy, Son Gohan either," he added, which made it ChiChi`s turn to cheer as the camera shifted over to Gohan, who was now lightly blushing as Krillin stopped picking on him and just fell over laughing.   
  
"Both fighters dominated their way through both the qualifiers and the semi-finals, but I`m not so sure if I can count out seasoned Tenkaichi Budokai veteran, Krillin, either, and the way Dosukoi shoved out half of a ring full of fighters, including another seasoned Tenkaichi Budokai veteran in Yamcha, it`s a hard call on if anyone is going to be outpacing this giant of a man anytime soon." The camera panned in on both Dosukoi and Krillin at their names, then zoomed out to show the full area.   
  
"The rules of this part of the tournament are decidedly different from anything that`s happened before. Fighters will commence a roaming race-and-battle through four treacherous battlegrounds, ending things with four battles against four incredible warriors from the core galaxies," the announcer stated. "In the center of Battle Island #2, the survivor of the race, or if there are more than one, will find a fighting ring waiting for them at the center of the island, in the junction point of the four battlezone exit tunnels. If there is more than one fighter, the competitors will face off until one has fallen unconcious, then the victor will enter the elevator at the center of the ring and ride to the top of the dome, entering a final arena for a battle against..."   
  
_ "The biggest liar in history?"_ ChiChi, Videl and Bulma thought in unknowing unison.   
  
"The man that saved us all from Cell..."   
  
_ "A big fat liar with bad hair?"_ They all thought again.   
  
"_Mister **Sa-tan**_!"   
  
_ "A total ja-ck-a-ss,"_ they all thought once more. Videl and ChiChi both rolled their eyes while the younger girl leaned forward, resting her head in her hands and her elbows on her knees. "The fighting will all be viewed on the giant monitor and can be seen in all four corners of the world," the announcer stated, a truly enormous video screen moving up to be seen by everyone present in the arena. "Let the countdown to launch... Begin!"   
  
  
"Here we go," Gohan thought, lowering the safety bar and smiling widely while the glass domes of lowered around the combatants. Something distant struck him though.   
  
_ Why does it feel like night today?  
Something in here`s not right today...   
  
_ "It`s nothing," he told himself while squirming into his seat to get a bit more comfortable. Trunks closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat, hands reaching forward and bracing his weight as the countdown reached five seconds.   
  
_ Why am I so uptight today?  
Paranoia`s all I got left...   
  
_ Krillin squirmed, looking around at everyone else in the competition. "Hopefully I can get far enough ahead to just waltz right through anyone that gets in the way," he mumbled, looking over to see Dosukoi smiling at him devilishly. "Moron," he finally grumbled, settling into his seat and waiting. Two seconds.   
  
One second.   
  
_ I don`t know what stressed me first, or how the pressure was fed  
But I know just what it feels like, to have a voice in the back of my head...  
  
_ "Good luck Gohan," Videl whispered, just loud enough that ChiChi heard every single word of it. She also caught that look of mute sadness still apparent in the girl`s eyes, and in her posture. ChiChi smiled a bit and reached forward, squeezing Videl on the shoulder and rocking her a bit in a manner that was oddly familiar for both of them. "He`ll be fine. I`m more worried about Dosukoi than I am anyone else in there," she chuckled. "That poor guy doesn`t know what`s going to hit `im," she said again with a beaming smile. Videl had looked back to her and let out a small smile of her own. "Guess so." _"How is that kid so much stronger than me when he`s maybe a year older than I am at most?"_ She asked herself.   
  
_ It`s like a face that I hold inside  
A face that awakens when I close my eyes  
A face that watches everytime I lie  
A face that laughs everytime I fall  
  
_ She frowned a bit, catching his carefree expression when the camera zoomed by as the carts sped off. _"Hopefully he`ll teach my dad a lesson,"_ Videl thought, remembering wholeheartedly the times Hercule had said she wasn`t strong enough to be trained by him yet, and how he broke into fits of laughter when she failed to do something perfectly. She shook her head in disgust as Hercule entered the hovercar that would carry him to the ring to face off with whoever got through the temple trials first. "Bastard," she muttered. "Videl?" ChiChi asked. Videl leaned back and crossed her arms over her belly and looked over at ChiChi with a curious hint of annoyance for her father. "There anything you`d like to talk about?" ChiChi asked. "No thanks. Now I know where Gohan get`s his ears from though," Videl answered with a smile. ChiChi smirked, knowing what Videl had meant by that. _"That`s my boy. Goku would be proud,"_ she thought while turning to watch the screen, which soon divided into four sections.   
  
_ And watches everything...   
  
_ Goku smiled, watching everything that happened with Bubbles, Gregory and King Kaio, who were all just as interested as he was. "Good thing ChiChi`s letting him train, huh?" Goku asked, pride in his boy apparent on his voice. He`d been focused on Gohan for the past two days, just watching as the boy survived on his own, looking after ChiChi and making friends as he went. "Proud of him, aren`t you?" King Kaio asked. "Definately," Goku answered.   
  
  
"Come on... Faster," Krillin begged the car he was riding, trying to hurry it along as the blur of movement around him settled back down and the other cars started to break away and make it to their own courses. "I may stand a blue chance in hell yet," he said aloud, watching as his car left them in the dust and then blasted right through a wall. "Shit!" He screeched, knocking open the dome of the vehicle and jumping out with a roll on the heated rock of the ground as his car nosedived into a pool of lava and vanished. "Why me?" He muttered, getting up and dusting himself off.   
  
  
Gohan`s car suddenly took flight, the dome yanking open while it rolled and pitched, throwing him out and causing him to land on some sort of checkered cushioning. The area was a weird place, no doubt, and he was surrounded with overgrown toys and a demented looking track of land that led to a temple entrance with a short silhouette faintly visible in the distance. "Freaky place," he muttered, getting to his feet and beginning a slow walk around, taking in the view.   
  
  
Trunks climbed out of his sinking car, now waist deep in water and wandering around with his hands in his pockets. His senses detected no one, but his thoughts could care less. "How could somewhere as beautiful as this be a battle zone?" He asked himself, looking down at his own reflection.   
  
_ So I know when it`s time to sink or swim  
That the face inside is hearing me, right beneath my skin...  
  
_ "Hello?" Krillin called out, wandering around in his hellish destination, looking for the exit or his opponent. It was the latter that he found first, a strange form standing, probably a little more or a little less taller than he himself was. He could clearly tell his foe was a female though, and in a way, the curves reminded him of Android 18. "You there," he called out, trying to be menacing. _"Don`t remember there being a girl in the 'aliens,'"_ he thought while stepping towards her. The smoke cleared finally, revealing a strangely dressed, light green-blue skinned looking woman with ears that reminded him somewhat of Piccolo, a pair of eyes that were close to the shade of her skin and orange hair that flowed down to just above her knees.   
  
"How... Pretty... But don`t expect me to show any mercy!" He called out, still trying to be menacing while assuming a fighter`s stance. No response. Instead, she slid her lovely eyes shut and spread her sleeved arms about widely, then folded them over her face. Her hair quickly rose up as if propelled by a wind that wasn`t there, and before he knew it...   
  
The assault came from almost all sides, an orbiting kick to the face, followed by a punch from the opposite end as she drifted around and under his chin, came up and threw the blow, then kneed him up from the ground and into the air, bringing both hands clenched together down into the base of his neck and sending him rocketing down into the ground with a loud crash. The woman turned away briefly, then spun around, foot shoveling through the dirt and roundhousing Krillin out of his indentation in the ground, sending the monk flying into a nearby wall of ash and then laying in the dirt.   
  
Krillin slowly got propped up on his elbows and shook his head several times. "What in the hell just happened?" He muttered before collapsing back onto the ground, utterly unconcious.   
  
  
There wasn`t a hinged jaw left in the arena at Krillin`s loss. Even old man Roshi, who`d been napping next to Oolong and Chaozu had woken up and stared at Krillin`s unconcious form, lying in the dirt before a big 'Eliminated' appeared on the screen, the part of it with Krillin shown slowly fading to black.   
  
_ It`s like I`m paranoid  
Lookin` over my back  
It`s like a whirlwind inside of my head  
It`s like I can`t stop what I`m hearin` within  
It`s like the face inside is right beneath my skin...  
_  
Dosukoi felt uneasy, but he payed no attention to it, continuing his trek through the desert battle zone he`d landed in without fault, oblivious to the dark green-blue skinned hand reaching up from the ground behind him.   
  
  
"Hey there," Gohan said cheerily, looking up to see a strangely dressed little green man with a strange, pirate-like outfit and a weird turban on seemed to appear from no where, hovering upside down. He didn`t respond to Gohan`s greeting, instead letting out a quiet yell and causing dozens of enormous blocks to fall from the sky, each of which Gohan narrowly avoided, landing with a swift movement atop a pillar some hundred feet from his opponent. "Who are you?" Gohan asked, clearly not recognizing this new addition to the fight.   
  
  
Dosukoi continued walking, finally stopping as that uneasy feeling grew to be too much to bare. Quietly, he turned around and looked around, just as a hand shot up from the ground and fingers viced themselves around his throat in a painful manner.   
  
  
Trunks continued his trudging walk through the water, stepping out and drying off with his energy alone, only to jump back in to avoid a small blast of energy which lanced through the ground he was in and blasted it to ashes. He landed right back in the water, shooting his glance over to a dim blue-green skinned man with wild, spikey orange hair, a pirate-like outfit on and a fairly large sword, his hand extended and crooked a bit, the palm wide open and glowing somewhat while he smirked. "What the hell is wrong with you? This is a game, not a war," Trunks bit out, sneering while shifting into a fighting stance.   
  
  
All eyes were on screen four as Bulma instinctively reached down and covered Trunks` eyes, Videl having to lean far to the side so that ChiChi wasn`t blocking her view of things, despite that the older woman knew she shouldn`t see. "Oh, sweet Dende," ChiChi muttered with her eyes wide.   
  
  
"Some game," the turban wearing fighter commented wittily while Gohan flared his aura up, a golden shield forming that blocked out two swirling purple beams from hitting him. "This is supposed to just be an exhibition match!" Gohan called out, jumping up and into the air and taking flight to avoid a series of lancing energy bolts, coming to a full stop high above his former standing place and staring down at the still upside-down little green man. The battlezone suddenly melted away into a forest.   
  
"What is this all about?" Gohan asked.   
  
  
Dosukoi choked out in pain, coughing in desperation to get his breath while clawing at his attacker`s arms and kicking at his sides in vain. "Help me!" He choked out, eyes sliding shut in effort while his senses went haywire. Slowly, he began to lose strength until finally...   
  
  
"Are you even listening?!" Trunks demanded, jumping over a rapid sword slash from his opponent and wishing he`d brought his own in response. The swashbuckler didn`t even respond, instead turning and bringing the blade crashing down for what promised to be a blow that would split Trunks in half. But it didn`t. Instead, Trunks clapped his hands together and caught the weapon, holding it at bay in a stalemate. Trunks kicked out, his opponent yanked his sword away and spun, resheathing the weapon as he did so and then kidney punching Trunks while the young warrior passed by, which undoubtably hurt but didn`t stop him in the least. Trunks turned around and dodged to the right, his foe passing right by and flipping while turning around, facing the future`s savior with a smug grin. "Who are you?" Trunks asked.   
  
"Just a mere warrior from another galaxy," his foe answered with a chuckle, breaking into a series of punches, kicks, dodges and parries with Trunks, who held his own magnificently the entire time before the two darted apart and the 'mere warrior,' made a B-line for the water, running off with Trunks not too far behind.   
  
  
"He`s gonna kill him!"   
  
  
Dosukoi let out a gasping wheeze and gave up fighting, going limp in his now-murderer`s grasp. The large fellow smiled and threw the sumo wrestler`s body aside into the sand, face down, where it began to sink rapidly.   
  
  
They continued their race through the lake, neither bothering to make an attack but both quite on gaurd for one should it come. "Why are you doing this?!" Trunks demanded, watching as his foe broke from running entirely and stood there in the water, he himself making a similar stop seconds later. Rather than answer though, the swashbuckler of a fighter let out a low chuckle and his amulet and ear rings both took on a strange glow.   
  
Instantly, his shirt ripped away, revealing a red wrap over half of his chest and one shoulder in a diagonal pattern, muscles bulging to twice their former capacity, skin turning a pale green and hair turning blood red. With a loud scream, a waterspout emerged around him before it faded away, the tides of the shallow lake now moving around violently in waves while the improved alien fighter grinned at Trunks. _"Crap."_   
  
"I`m Trunks. Son of Vegeta. I won`t fall to you..."   
  
"I`m Gokuha. And yes, you will fall to me."   
  
  
"Murderer!" The crowds screeched as ChiChi grabbed Videl and Bulma, who was still holding baby Trunks, and jerked them both into where they were standing in their seats, just right so that the onrush of people rushed by them without trampling them to death. "Oh... God..." Videl muttered, staring slackjawed at Dosukoi`s sinking corpse with a look of disgust and shock, mirrored somewhat by ChiChi and Bulma`s expressions. "We`ll have to leave the moment we can get out without being trampled," ChiChi stated, getting firm nods from Bulma and Videl both. _"I hope Gohan will be okay,"_ she thought, watching the aerial view of the duel between the black haired boy and the short looking, turban clad sociopath he was exchanging blows with up close.   
  
_I know I`ve got a face in me  
Points out all my mistakes to me  
You`ve got a face on the inside too and your paranoia`s probably worse  
I don`t know what set me off first, but I know what I can`t stand  
Everybody acts like the fact of the matter is  
I can`t add up to what you can  
  
_ Gohan frowned deeply, dodging yet another rapid blow from his opponent and swiftly delivering a kick that threw him for a spin, though he only cartwheeled off the ground and took flight again, sending off dozens of small ki blasts at the spikey haired adolescent, who jumped into the skies and threw off a bright blue ball of energy in response. The little man just jumped into the air, appearing in front of Gohan and speaking in a quiet, threatening voice. "I am Bido. You are Dead," he stated, reaching out and trying to smack Gohan but instead having his hand grabbed and his wrist smashed by Gohan`s knee, which followed with Bido flying towards the ground due to a throw.   
  
  
Gokuha exploded from the side of a building, dragging Trunks up into the skies by his head and then diving down towards a nearby bridge, driving the young Prince`s head through the surface of the bridge and into the water. The feeling of ice cold water around his face wasn`t lingering though, and pretty soon, Trunks was sliding along down the side of a building towards the ground, only to feel a massive fist smash into the back of his face and send him flying through the side of another building, then another and another before Trunks felt a hard, downward ankle kick into the stomach, which sent him crashing into the ground before even gravity could kick in.   
  
Gokuha landed beside him, grinning ear to ear and drawing his sword while the beaten young man, quivering and a little bloodied, visible battered despite how little he was bleeding, got to his hands and knees and looked up. "You`re finished."   
  
"**Die!**" Gokuha`s voice bellowed as he again unsheathed his sword and drew back, swinging the blade down at Trunks` head...   
  
_ But everybody has a face that they hold inside  
A face that awakes when they close their eyes  
A face watches everytime they lie  
A face that laughs every time they fall  
And watches everything  
So you know that when it`s time to sink or swim...  
  
_ Trunks seethed with rage and let out a growl, suddenly enveloped in a blinding flash of light, a golden aura springing to life from the ground around him, his hair shooting out and standing on end in a spikey manner. The blade was caught firmly on Trunks` right forearm, holding there as a struggle began. Neither side gave as Gokuha pressed his blade in further, Trunks` skin hugging ki barrier around his forearm strengthening dramatically in response. "No one survives against a Super Saiya-jin," Trunks yelled. "Least of all, **me**," he added in as the blade finally outright shattered.   
  
_ That the face is watching you too, right inside your skin.  
  
_ Gokuha tried to let out a scream but found himself unable to as Trunks` left hand shoveled into his stomach and then, in a blast of crimson, exploded out of the small of his back, impaling him on the half-breed`s muscular arm. Trunks stood up straight, seething with anger and letting out an angry huff before outright ripping his hand out of the giant warrior`s body and smacking him across the face with his right hand. Gokuha went into a dizzied spin and landed on his back, dead as a door knob.   
  
Trunks stood there, regarding the downed form of his former opponent with little sympathy. Then, without any sort of warning, he turned around and let out a gasp, finding himself the victim of a massive kick across the side of the face, which downed him easily.   
  
"That`s..." Vegeta shot up in bed, sitting straight and then looking around frenziedly before rushing to the room he kept his battlesuit in. "Hold on, Trunks," he said to himself, knowing that no one heard him.   
  
"What energy," Gohan gaped, looking off in the direction of where he`d just sensed Trunks` energy going so low that he was obviously unconcious. Without missing a beat, he turned back to look at Bido, who was surrounded by a raging, multicolored aura, causing giant boulders to fly out of no where and land all around the young hero.   
  
_ The sun goes down  
** I feel the light betray me...  
**   
_ Gohan continued his flight rapidly, moving as fast he could at the moment with the raging Bido not far behind. He was standing alone now, and he knew it.   
  
_

End Part Three 

_


	4. Part 4 - Crawling

Hybrid TheoryDisclaimer: Don`t own it. Sayonara.  
  
  


* * *

**

Hybrid Theory

**  
_Crawling_  
  
  
  
"Krillin!" Gohan spoke out through a clenched jaw and gritted teeth, looking over and landing with a skid beside the fallen frame of his departed father`s best friend. He stood defiantly, watching Bido perform several flips and a spin before coming to a halt in a clear spot on a blown out building reminiscent of the Roman Colliseum. Trunks landed with a thud on top of Krillin, laying face down over the unconcious midget. "Trunks too?" Gohan asked, rushing forward and trying to stir them. "Wake up," he demanded, smacking Krillin on the shoulder and shaking Trunks desperately. "Come on, wake up!" He demanded again, looking back to hear a voice echo over his shoulder. "Hey kid."   
  
"The earth is a nice planet," the woman who had knocked out Krillin said with a cocky smirk. Gohan`s eyes narrowed as he observed the one who had murdered Dosukoi walk up and lean on the other side of the arch, Bido landing in between them. "Indeed," another voice answered from behind, heralded by metallic clicks. Gohan turned around quickly to catch the source.   
  
_ Crawling in my skin  
Consuming all I feel  
Fear is how I fall  
  
"What power,"_ Gohan stammered, looking up as the towering, dark blue skinned giant of a fighter, wearing a similar pirate get-up to what the other three had on, appeared, smirking arrogantly.   
  
_ Confusing what is real...   
  
_ "The earth is in terrible danger," King Kaio stated. Goku looked up from his game of cards with Gregory and Bubbles, an eyebrow raised. Sure, the TV had gone out into static once Dosukoi had died, but this? "What? From who?" The black eyed Saiyan hero asked, a look of stern seriousness gracing his features. King Kaio`s glasses shined briefly and he spoke again. "Bojack."   
  
"Who?"   
  
"Bojack. He was an evil warrior, filled with bad ki and tried to destroy the core galaxies one by one close to a million years ago," King Kaio explained. "Is he like Piccolo Daimaou?" Goku asked, head cocked to the side. "Worse, Goku. Far worse," King Kaio answered before continuing. "He`s a devil thirsting for blood and destruction. Hellbent on causing chaos wherever he goes. We, the four Kaios and the Grand Kaio, sealed him up in the heart of a start at the far end of the galaxy, a star which would never die so long as all of us lived."   
  
Goku looked on curiously. "You sealed him in a star?"   
  
"It`s you`re fault he`s free now, Goku. If it hadn`t been for you teleporting Cell here, blowing up my planet and killing me, the seal would not have been broken. Now, Bojack has his eyes set on the home planet of my first true student since he was last free," King Kaio explained. "He`s got his eye on the earth." Goku smiled, beaming with a readily apparent pride.   
  
"But King Kaio, the Earth has Gohan now."   
  
  
Tien and Yamcha were now joined in the pile, both having gotten in way over their heads, way before they should have. _"They... They want to take the Earth. But..."_ He paused, looking up into the cold, ruthless eyes of Bojack. _"That`d mean mom and Bulma... Trunks and everyone in Apple Town, Videl and even Hercule would die,"_ he thought, growing half enraged, half fearful of the towering warrior who stood in the center of the arch some dozens of feet above him.   
  
"I won`t allow it," he said angrily, pillars of golden light suddenly shooting up from the ground around him, orbiting in a set circle about his profile while his hair started getting longer and faded from black to gold in a blast of light, his eyes already a sea green that matched the color of the skin of most of these invaders. "I won`t let you hurt anyone else!"   
  
The woman, who had introduced herself as Zangya, and the man, calling himself Pujin, both let out cocky smiles and darted from their positions as parts of a triangle around the pile and the still standing young man behind it, who jumped back and delivered a hard elbow into Bido`s cheek, sending the little green man reeling back into a wall. Gohan then jumped again, flying backwards through a brick wall and sending the rubble crashing down around Pujin, who brazenly flew right through it with a grin, sending off a rapidly moving punch towards Gohan`s chin, only to have the youthful Super Saiya-jin catch the punch and swing Pujin around before through him through the side of the brick wall, leaving a skidding trail through the ground before backflipping to his feet, more surprised than hurt.   
  
_ There`s something inside me that pulls beneath the surface  
Consuming, confusing  
This lack of self-control I fear is never ending  
Controlling, I can`t seem...  
  
_ Gohan looked down, watching Zangya dart up after him and then shouting out a familiar phrase.   
  
"Kame Hame Ha!"   
  
On cue, with his hands cuffed together at the wrists, a slightly thinnish blue beam erupted from his palms, flying down at the orange haired, murderous beauty, who smacked it away like yesterday`s news and continued on, rushing at him with a murderous smile.   
  
_ To find myself again  
My walls are closing in  
Without a sense of confidence, I`m convinced   
That there`s just too much pressure to take...   
  
_The beam slammed into Pujin`s chest and detonated on impact, blotting out the large warrior`s form for several seconds with a blinding light whilst Gohan and Zangya dueled with one another, throwing punches and then dodging away. Pujin stood though, a fresh, bloody mark on his chest but a grin still on his face as he took the blast as his own signal to let loose, extending his arms forward, spreading out his fingers and then firing off several dozen, thin laser-like beams, which flashed through the air, curving around Zangya`s shapely form while she spinned away from Gohan with her arms folded across her chest, her hair billowing around her like some sort of cape and her legs extended right beneath her, straight to the ground.   
  
"Ha!" He called out, swatting away every beam with one movement, causing them all to smack into a barrier that just wasn`t there. Suddenly, a few small holes appeared in the sky.   
  
_ I`ve felt this way before  
So insecure  
  
_ Gohan didn`t expect it when all three of the warriors rushed him at once, grabbing him and then slamming him up through the sky, causing it to shatter around him like glass and giving him a good few nasty cuts and bruises while the debris rained down the ground in shards, vaporizing before it could touch anything.   
  
The terrain had changed now, it was a bunch of Victorian-era looking houses, like what you`d expect from an 1800s era stereotype of a German town out in the countryside, devoid of habitation but soon brimming with the sounds of combat. Gohan had touched down on the thin brick wall that served as the fence of an old looking storage house of some kind, Zangya and Bido both touching down quickly in front of and behind him. With more skill than most would think possible for anyone, let alone an eleven and a half year old boy, Gohan blocked and parried most, if not all of their blows, occasionally trying a retaliation with kicks and elbows but to no avail.   
  
Bido was the first to take advantage though, ducking under a wild roundhouse of an elbow and slamming Gohan in the midsection with his hands, Zangya swiftly taking advantage of this and jumping beneath him while he started to fly back from the impact by Bido, striking him at point point blank with an oversized ki blast that sent the boy flying in the opposite direction, skidding along and then bouncing along a hard brick road while stormclouds gathered overhead. With a crash, Gohan landed inside the living room of a house, surrounded by glass shards and overturned furniture, but he was quick to get to his feet, managing to throw a punch that threw back Zangya`s incoming beam attack and sent it flying out into the middle of no where, detonating harmlessly but brightly.   
  
_ "Can`t beat them all at once,"_ Gohan thought, jumping through the ceiling and then bursting out of the roof of the two story house he was formerly standing in, then fanning his hands in front of his face and closing his eyes. "Solar Flare!" In response to his call, the entire area grew brighter than the sun itself for a brief period of time, leaving Bido exposed and blinded a few feet off the ground, having been in the middle of a charge at the boy who now buried his elbow into the back of the turban wearing small fry`s neck, sending him into a skid through the house that Gohan was in. After that, he jumped into the air and took flight, throwing several blasts at, and making impact with each, on Pujin, who was also exposed when the Solar Flare went off.   
  
  
Videl turned away, along with Bulma and ChiChi and baby Trunks, the area around them now brighter than even the hottest day in summer for a few seconds. "Gohan!" ChiChi cried out while Bulma yanked her along, Videl not far behind. _"This isn`t good. Whatever just happened was probably some sort of high powered attack, and if things have gotten that desperate,"_ Videl guessed, suddenly feeling a pit in her stomach. Her feet pounded the walkway as she and the two older women ran for their lives down towards the parking lot. "Don`t be dead, Gohan," she muttered. "I need a friend too badly for you to just up and die right after we meet," she added in a whisper right after that.   
  
"Looks like someone just used a Solar Flare," Bulma remarked, hearing several resounding explosions soon afterward. "Be okay, Gohan," ChiChi mumbled again and again. She didn`t want to have her second son born mere months after her first son`s death...   
  
  
Zangya was the only one unaffected by the Flare, since she was turned away and her hair had moved into just the right position to effectively render the delaying action useless against her. She and the fiery eyed hybrid that took down Cell were now trading blows rapidly in a running battle down and across the mainstreet of their current environment, reducing several empty shops to rubble in the process. Zangya dove to the side and sent a sweeping kick towards Gohan`s midsection, he jumped over it and replied with a stiff kick into the shoulder. Zangya recovered and dodged to the right to avoid one of Gohan`s kicks, then threw a punch which he swiftly blocked with two forearms in a boxer-styled movement that slid her punch right off and into the air. He then yanked his arms down and back and slammed both palms into her while torpedoing his body forward, hands layered over one another. "Masenko-ha!"   
  
Zangya flew back, half of her body blotted out by the bright orange tint that was the color to Gohan`s signature attack, which left her rolling down the remaining distance of mainstreet and into the front lobby of a bank, coughing in pain from the impact and the damage it had caused but still quite alive, and far better off than the building around her, which had mostly exploded from being hit by the Masenko.   
  
Gohan jumped up into the air and landed on the roof of a house, looking around sharply for his next opponent when Pujin appeared, blasting out of the roof in much the same manner as he had the desert floor when he strangled Dosukoi to death earlier, though rather than try to choke Gohan, he sent a wide-angled sweeping kick towards the boy`s head, which missed when Gohan ducked and then threw a punch of his own, which Pujin blocked, but the impact still sent him into a skid up the side of the roof, which left plenty of space as Bido erupted from beneath where his comrade had formerly been standing, diving into Gohan`s midsection and tackling him into the ground with tremendous impact.   
  
Gohan was reeling, but he wasn`t out in the least, drawing back and decking Bido away with a hard right that sent the midget flying, then rolling out of the way as Pujin`s booted feet crashing down and drilling into the brick road where Gohan had been laying, only to recieve a pair of swift kicks into the hip, which sent him hurtling back. Gohan huffed as Pujin recovered easily and rushed at him, ducking two wild punches from the gigantic fighter then throwing one of his own, which was easily blocked and then used to throw Gohan into a skidding path down the road, in the opposite direction of the bank that Zangya was now wobbling out of, holding her side in discomfort.   
  
"Not bad for a kid," Bojack muttered from his spot on the sidelines, watching the action. "But he`ll need a lot more than that if he hopes to fight with us."   
  
_ Discomfort, endlessly has pulled itself upon me  
Distracting, reacting  
Against my will I stand beside my own reflection  
It`s haunting, how I can`t seem...  
  
_ Gohan jumped back, Zangya followed. She was a bit shaky, but she was still fighting near or at her peak, throwing a hard kick at the half-saiyan`s head only to have him dodge it by inches, which was in truth just what they`d wanted, proved when Bido rushed in and nailed Gohan in the stomach and into the air, where Zangya reappeared, striking him right in the face with a pair of fists, sending Gohan crashing through the roof of a tower, all the way to the basement below it.   
  
Pujin grinned and drew back. "Strike!" He called out, throwing an enormous ki ball into the ground, where it burrowed in and rolled a vicious path through the streets, right into the base of the tower, which exploded into a crimson dome visible from many miles away.   
  
  
"Ow," Trunks groaned, squirming out from beneath Tien and Yamcha before faltering forward to his hands and knees, once golden, now lavender hair hanging around his facial features while he took a few seconds to gain his breath. With a cough, he looked up to see the bright red light of the battlefield some blocks away.   
  
Trunks was angry now.   
  
  
_ To find myself again  
My walls are closing in...  
  
_ "Can`t... Stop... Now..."   
  
The rubble wouldn`t give an inch. It had to though. With a loud grunt, he pushed it all right off and emerged, angry as hell with a sneer that could frighten you etched into his somewhat exhausted features. While none of those that`d faced off with him had escaped without injury, none were hurt even half as badly as he was, not even Zangya, who`d taken a near-full power Masenko without dying or losing conciousness.   
  
_ Without a sense of confidence  
I`m convinced that`s just too much pressure to take   
  
"Can`t beat them..."_   
  
  
"Get mad Gohan! Show them your full power!" Goku screamed, watching the battle feverishly through King Kaio.   
  
  
Strings hit him. Golden and silver, purple and blue, white and gray, never one color for very long, pinning him against the wall under a hail of light that just wouldn`t end. "Crap," he muttered, looking on through it with a strained expression to see Bido, Pujin and Zangya all with similar hand movements sending these strings at him, which continued to eat at him, bit by bit.   
  
Bojack shook his head as the boy`s hair fell back down and forward, black again, his eyes losing their greenish tint and also fading to the same midnight black as his hair. "Time to end it," Bojack said with a movement of the arm, throwing a massive ki ball at the staggering boy, who forced himself up yet again and crossed his arms in front of himself in a weak attempt to block the attack.   
  
It never hit. A most familiar golden beam with a purple corkscrew struck into it before any chance of impact could be made, detonating Bojack`s strike before it ever got very far. None of the group was truly surprised, either that or they were too arrogant to admit it.   
  
_ I`ve felt this way before  
So insecure...  
  
_ "I guess I`ll get to fight a man of spirit today after all," Piccolo said, standing on the nearby pillar without much of a care visible on his face. Bojack rolled his eyes again as the Namek removed his cloak and turban, bundling them up and then casually, almost lazily, tossing the grotesquely weighted cloathing aside and charging forward with a howl.   
  
Bojack easily dodged the first attacks, but was quickly caught unaware when Piccolo displayed his own skill and dodged the alien leader`s first punch, then the second, the third and the follow-up kick, firing off a blast of energy at point blank in retaliation. Bojack was taken aback but wasn`t hurt too badly, instead slapping away Piccolo and sending Gohan`s first teacher flying through the air, but that didn`t stop him at all. Instead, Piccolo halted and shouted out as dozens of greenish ki balls appeared all around Bojack, caving in on him in a decidedly painful way only to be joined by a second, a third and fourth wave of these attacks.   
  
"Have a snack," Piccolo quipped while taking a fighting stance up in the skies. "No thanks," Bojack stated from his hovering zone up above the Namekian warrior, sending off a beam of energy right at Piccolo. Piccolo barely managed to throw the attack away, but when the second blast came, exploding right on top of him, Piccolo hurtled to the ground. "And so it ends!" Bojack laughed, pulling back and arm and throwing what was going to be the death blow...   
  
"Piccolo!" Gohan screamed, speeding towards his mentor as quickly as he could manage.   
  
_ Crawling in my skin  
These wounds, they will not heal  
Fear is how I fall  
Confusing what is real  
  


End Part Four 

_


	5. Part 5 - One Step Closer

Hybrid TheoryDisclaimer: Don`t own it. Ta-ta.  
  
  


* * *

**

Hybrid Theory

** _  
One Step Closer_  
  
  
"Damn it!" Gohan cursed as he sped up to his absolute limits and beyond. _"Not gonna make it, not gonna make it, gotta move!"_   
  
Suddenly, as Piccolo hit the brick road, the blast Bojack had sent off came to roaring stop, exploding against a newly arrived barrier. "This is your payback!" Trunks called out, cupping his hands together and yelling out as hundreds, if not numbering into the low thousands of small beams rippled from the sphere that formed there. Bojack vanished in a cloud of dust and smoke, the explosions becoming too rapid and too loud to individually identify all too soon while the assault continued. Finally, Trunks stopped.   
  
_ I cannot take this anymore  
I`m saying everything I`ve said before  
All these words they make no sense, I find bliss in ignorance  
The less I hear, the less you say  
But you`ll find that out anyway...  
  
_ When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Bojack stood there, head cocked to the side, eyes shut lazily, unphased. "Shit," Trunks muttered out. With a yell, he jumped into the air and rushed towards Bojack, throwing off two ki blasts at the tower as he did so. Bojack remained hovering as the floor beneath him was simply blown out of existence. The powerhouse of a half-saiyan prince slowed down now, until finally he came to a total halt just outside of arm`s reach of Bojack, struggling to get through the purple barrier that held him. Unfortunately, Bido thought otherwise.   
  
As did Pujin. With that massive harpoon-like weapon he held, he attempted to run Trunks through, throwing the weapon for all he was worth at the young warrior who struggled around, trying to get free even as the source of the purple sphere became apparent with Bido`s string attacks, which were slowly forcing him out of Super Saiya-jin. The spear came closer, closer still and...   
  
_** Just like before...  
  
**_ With a resounding clang and a few whistles, the ropes were shattered and Trunks turned around, catching his sword by the hilt and slicing the spear in half down the middle, igniting himself back into Super Saiya-jin with a blinding flash for the third or fourth time today. "Father!" He called out, looking down and to the left, then catching his sword`s sheath and strapping it over his back with a tired smile. Pujin and Bido both looked towards the source of an eerie glow as Vegeta emerged into view, arms crossed over his chest with an all-business look to his face, already in Super Saiya-jin mode with the aura to accompany it flowing around him. "You were expecting somebody else?" Vegeta asked his son from an alternate timeline, looking at the two semi-stunned alien fighters, then shifting his gaze over to Bojack himself, who bore a cocky grin that made the Prince`s blood boil.   
  
  
"Vegeta?" Gohan asked, looking over while scooping Piccolo off the ground and watching the show from his vantage point elsewhere. The Prince didn`t ignore him either, looking to Gohan with that familiar smirk turning up on his face. "I`ll handle these idiots," he stated jubilantly, smacking aside Pujin and then jamming his elbow into Bido`s cheek in the same swift movement after covering the distance in the blink of an eye.   
  
"Come on, Bojack. Let`s end this game," Vegeta called out with a deep seeded resentment. Bojack smiled and jumped at the Prince, a volley of ki balls thrown only to be thrown back and away into the buildings behind the tyrant, who rushed in through his own attack and started trading punches with the last pure Saiyan alive.   
  
_ "He lost his will to fight when Goku died... But with Gohan and I in danger,"_ Trunks thought watching his father fight like a rabid madman against Bojack, actually inflicting more damage than Trunks, Gohan and Piccolo combined in the space of a minute. "Good luck, Father," Trunks muttered while falling to his feet on the ground and sheathing his sword again, hunching forward with his hands on his knees, trying to catch a breath.   
  
Vegeta nailed Bojack in the stomach only to be smashed back by an elbow from the cocky fighter, which sent him flying back and into a two on one duel against Zangya and Bido, who rushed in heedless of their own survival to try and take him down. The Prince held his own wonderfully though, slamming a ki blast into Bido`s gut and then whipping Zangya into him by her long hair, but it wasn`t enough.   
  
Pujin appeared, swiftly kicking Vegeta in the gut and sending him flying back through the side of a building. Pujin reappeared on the other side, expecting Vegeta to fly back out, but he was in for a very rude surprise.   
  
_ Everything you say to me  
Takes me one step closer to the edge  
And I`m about to break!  
  
_ "**_Final Flash_**!"   
  
Trunks smiled with pride as Pujin met the attack from behind while turning around, flying shoulder first into a building only to have the blast detonate violently, hurling flaming, vaporizing debris everywhere in a hurricane of apparent death. The Prince smirked, but Pujin stood there in the epicenter as the explosion stopped, bloodied, bruised and otherwise banged up but still capable of holding his own. He was huffing and trying to gain breath, which was granted as Bojack reappeared again and nailed Vegeta with a surprise assault.   
  
Two kicks, one for the gut, the other for the small of the back. Two punches, the first an downward punch into the back of the neck, the second an uppercut into the jaw. Then came the force of a full powered ki wall, which sent Vegeta flying back and into a string attack from Bido, who was just too annoying to quit.   
  
_ I need a little room to breathe  
`Cause I`m one step closer to the edge, and I`m about to break...  
  
_ "Shit," Vegeta muttered, fading from Super Saiya-jin and passing out on the ground. Trunks went into a blind rage, powering up and rushing into the fray with a full on attack on Zangya while Gohan set Piccolo down lying next to the fallen Vegeta, then turned and started staggering towards the real fighting.   
  
Zangya laughed, kicking Trunks into a string net from Bido, who smiled and tightened it reflexively with every struggle the raging monarch made. "Take this!" Bojack called out from his vantage point, appearing behind Trunks and giving him a painful blast into the back. With a scream, Trunks savagely ripped out of the net and streaked downward, punching Bido in the jaw so hard that it sent the small fighter flying with a trail of blood streaking ahead, but his rampage was cut short by Bojack, who slammed a fist into his gut and pinned him to the ground.   
  
"I`m your opponent," Pujin stated with a drunken cough, charging at Gohan in a rage only to have the youth fall to the side at the last second and almost pass out, making the giant rush right by him and smack into a wall, obviously still dazed and witless from Vegeta`s Final Flash. Bojack then appeared, striking Gohan several times in exceedingly painful ways, then throwing the boy into another of Bido`s nets, the little turban wearing fighter having gotten up from wherever he`d landed and once again throwing out one of those stringy attacks of his. Gohan struggled valiantly, but he wasn`t even in Super Saiya-jin right now. "The stronger you fight it, the more energy you lose," Bido cackled through an apparently broken jaw while Pujin staggered away from where he`d impacted, shaking himself ferociously to get out the cobwebs from Vegeta`s attack.   
  
"You`ve done well, kid," Bojack complimented, backhanding Gohan away, then giving him a knee to the gut and then punching him in the face, a series of moves which ended leaving the boy struggling back to his feet, coughing up blood and spouting off more desperate obscenities than could be mentioned.   
  
Then, the car pulled up, and Mr. Satan poked his head out, obviously scared beyond words. "Hercule!" Gohan cried out in surprise. "All he`s done is buy you a few more seconds to think of what you`ll tell the Kaios for getting killed today," Bojack retorted annoyedly, having paused just long enough to give Gohan time to look around and take in the carnage around him. Gohan got mad, and when he got mad, he got the power to go with it. His hair again shot out and turned golden, eyes turning a sea green with the glint of an experienced fighter in them, and he suicidally hurled himself at Bojack, screaming out only to be attacked from all sides by Bojack`s subordinates.   
  
_ I find the aren`t so clear  
Wish I could find a way to disappear  
All these thoughts, they make no sense, I find bliss in ignorance  
Nothing seems to go away, over and over again...  
  
_ "Just like before," Gohan muttered, finding himself locked in a bearhug that he couldn`t escape no matter how he tried. Bojack just let out a laugh, squeezing Gohan even tighter while his reddish hair flowed behind him. The monster had made his transition to some sort of altered state back when he was beating down Vegeta, and now he was just biding his time. Slowly killing Gohan.   
  
"Look at it this way, kid," Bojack began, squeezing Gohan until he couldn`t do anything but cough up blood. "Maybe you can see your old man. And I know he`s watching you from up there with the Kaios," Bojack stated joyously. Zangya watched on, smiling sadistically as the boy let out a scream that could chill anyone`s soul, save for the truly evil. Pujin and Bido were both exchanging witty comments about what to do with the bodies of the fighters to further insult them after the boy died, but something was about to change their plans.   
  
_ Shut up when I`m talkin` to you!   
  
_ "I can`t stomach this anymore!" Goku screamed, placing two fingers to his forehead as King Kaio turned around. "Goku, don`t!" He started, half finished when Goku vanished. "Damn," King Kaio muttered under his breath.   
  
  
On the earth, Gohan reeled back in Bojack`s grip and did the only thing he could, biting into the skin of the tyrant until streaks or purple stained the tips of his teeth, then ripping out the flesh he`d sank his teeth into and spitting the flesh into his would-be assassin`s face. Bojack sneered and tightened his grip even further until finally...   
  
"_Enough!_" Bojack went flying back as a golden light brighter than the son appeared in front of him, and what felt like a fist rained into the side of his jaw and throwing him away, losing his hold on the boy that crashed to the ground a second later, gasping for air and half unconcious. Then, Gohan felt warm. Kinda fuzzy really, looking around in what seemed to be some pocket dimension, held in Goku`s arms. "Gohan," his father began. "You can`t give up now. Trunks and Vegeta are down and Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha and Krillin don`t stand a chance to begin with. You _have_ to show them your true power, you`re the earth`s last hope!" Goku yelled, shaking Gohan to his senses and then holding him up by the shoulders. "Show them why you don`t mess with us earthlings," Goku said with a smile, dropping Gohan now, who felt light as a feather in reality.   
  
"What the hell was that?!" Bojack demanded, getting up with a slick of purple blood trailing down his pale green skin where Goku`s fist had hit him, the ripped flesh of Gohan`s defiant bite bleeding just as badly as before. Gohan touched down with a pair of taps, the golden sphere suddenly vanishing to display the boy standing there, back in Super Saiya-jin and looking even more determined than he had been when this ordeal started. "End of the line," he stated simply, jumping up at the exact moment to dodge all the attacks from the underlings.   
  
Gohan landed again and then cracked his neck as a faint golden glow started to run up and down his body, even more defined than the aura. _"Just like before,"_ he thought, energy suddenly rippling off of him in a tornado of electricity, his aura growing and burning brightly while his muscles became more defined, hair spiking up and becoming far longer, save for a single strand that hung down over his face. With a loud roar, a golden dome of energy shot out from his body, pushing away Zangya, Pujin and Bido all at once and then leaving them all crashing to the ground in front of Bojack. "Dumb kid," Bojack muttered. "Pujin, Bido," he ordered.   
  
Without delay, both rushed forward, throwing out string nets galore only to find that now...   
  
They had no effect whatsoever. Gohan kept walking, purpose in his eyes, just like he had done against Cell. The difference was clear though. He wasn`t here to torture Bojack and his underlings. He was here to kill all four of them as quickly as possible.   
  
The string nets hung off of his body by the hundreds, still having no effect whatsoever while the youth stepped between the two green skinned warriors and opened his mouth, screaming so loudly that no living being`s ears could register the sound, Bojack and his band of thugs included. Pujin and Bido, as well as most of the rubble and a good bit of the ground around Gohan went flying away, both managing to steady themselves and rush back in. Pujin struck out first, through blow after punishing blow into Gohan`s body, none of which even phased him.   
  
Zangya twitched as Pujin`s scream echoed through her ears, the once proud warrior`s body severed in half at the ribcage, exploding right afterward. Bido either didn`t see or didn`t care about his ally`s death, but he didn`t get long enough to mourn. One swift kick and the short warrior was sliced clean in half, also exploding with the same intensity as Pujin`s death. "Your turn," he stated, turning towards Zangya and Bojack with an angry stare and a low, threatening voice that had reduced Cell to a frightful coward.   
  
Zangya backed away briefly, absolutely horrified as Gohan slowly moved towards Bojack, realizing she had unwittingly placed herself between them. _"Oh no,"_ she thought, realizing Bojack was behind her, shoving her forward forcibly. Gohan didn`t even budge when Zangya smashed into him, not of her own free will either. Instead, he just walked over her, not even paying the scared woman a bit of mind. Bojack twitched and then screamed.   
  
"Worthless bitch!" He called out, throwing a ki blast at Zangya, only to have it caught by Gohan and then thrown carelessly away, detonating out at sea. "You`re going to die, Bojack," he said murderously. "No, you will!" Bojack stated, rushing forward and drawing back his arm...   
  
Gohan was faster. In the blink of an eye, Bojack had a fist impaling right through him, then a second, which shoved him back. "Shit, shit, shit," Bojack muttered, faltering back and drawing his power out into his hands. "A mere... Kid... Can`t... Do this," Bojack whimpered out, staggering as he drew his power even further into his hands, knowing his end was near. "I`m not holding back anymore, Bojack. Say hi to Frieza and Cell for me," Gohan responded coldly.   
  
"**_Kame Hame Ha_**!"   
  
It was over. Categorically. Finally. Decisively. Bojack vanished in a blinding beam of light. In one incredible pillar of light that continued off of the Earth like some sort of cosmic light signal or a tower ascending into the heavens, close to a million years of evil was silenced for all time. Gohan could almost hear his father cheering...   
  
Zangya, who was still frightened witless, just stared at her employer`s killer, promptly fainting as explosions sounded off all over the island with his death. Gohan powered down though, staggering down the street nearest to him and falling over a few yards from Piccolo and Vegeta. "I did it," he muttered before falling over and going to sleep.   
  
  
Goku smiled without another word as King Kaio appeared behind him, hands behind his back. "You know... What you did was abhorently wrong back there," King Kaio stated, nudging his glasses a bit. Goku looked back and nodded. "I know. But why?" He asked. "I don`t know," King Kaio answered. "It happened while I blinked, so I missed it," he answered with a smirk, watching down with Goku at the world below.   
  
  
"Mr. Satan saves the world again," Krillin read dejectedly from the paper, glancing over at Trunks and Gohan, who lay in nearby hospital beds. "Can you believe that creep?" Krillin asked. Gohan shrugged and spoke with a bit more forgiveness than his friend did. "Technically he did, since he bought time and that made things happen the way they did," Gohan said with a wincing shrug as the door opened. ChiChi and Bulma walked in soon after, Bulma carrying baby Trunks in her arms like she almost always did. There was also a new arrival with the group as well.   
  
"You`ve got a lot of explaining to do, Gohan," Videl stated, walking in after Bulma and going directly for Gohan`s bed. He immediately gained a slightly shocked look on his face as Videl pulled up a chair, but not before giving him a kiss on the cheek, something that turned his entire body red with a blush as he could hear Krillin, Bulma and his mother all humming out the tune to "Gohan`s got a girlfriend."   
  
_  
"Why me?" _  
  
And at a distance, there was another who watched things more carefully, now dressed differently and gazing from across the street. Zangya, alive and well, continued to gaze on at those in the hospital as the boy that could have killed her and instead spared her lay there, tinted a slight pink as viewed from a distance. "They grow on you, don`t they?" Another voice asked. "Seems that way," Zangya answered, watching as Android 18 crouched down behind her, Piccolo not too far behind, seeming to carry on a conversation with Vegeta using nothing but silent glances back and forth.   
  
  
_

End Hybrid Theory  
  
  


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Author`s Note: Hope you enjoyed my first ever songfic. Give reviews please, there may be a sequel if anyone wants it and I can ever get off my lazy ass to do it...  
  
The _Sh33p_


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